Government IT must be open - open to the people and organisations that use our
services and open to any provider, regardless of their size.
We currently have many small, separate platforms operating across disconnected
departments and IT that is tied into monolithic contracts. We need to have a platform
for government that allows us to share appropriate data effectively and that gives us
flexibility and choice.
Already we have started to make progress and there is activity right across
government that demonstrates our commitment to achieving the change we need.
The Government Digital Service has launched GOV.UK - a simpler, clearer, faster
and common platform for government's digital services, based on open source
software. The whole site is designed around the needs of the user. GDS has also
developed the online petitions system for the UK Parliament to enable people to
raise, sign and track petitions. It was developed by SMEs and is built on open
standards. Another site legislation.gov.uk – the online home of legislation – was
designed around open standards so more participants could get involved. It connects
with inhouse, public and private sector systems and has allowed The National
Archives to develop an entirely new operating model for revising legislation. The
private sector is investing effort in improving the underlying data. Companies then reuse the source code for processing the data and are including this in their own
commercial products and services.